GEPET-Eau: Adaptive and predictive efficient management of the water resource of inland navigation networks in a global change context

GEPET-Eau project aims at contributing to the objectives of the French plan for adaptation to the global change (Plan National d’Adaptation au Changement Climatique). Adaptive and predictive management strategies for inland navigation networks will be proposed firstly to ensure the seaworthiness conditions and secondly to improve the efficiency of the water resource management.

In the framework of the project, a reactive control architecture gathering predictive and adaptive management strategies for the Cuinchy-Fontinettes Reach (CFR) will be poposed. The global change context is considering in this study. The CFR is located in Nord-Pas de Calais, a region in the North of France. Due to its importance for navigation and its localization between two major catchment areas of this region, the CFR is particularly interesting benchmark. These two catchment areas are the Lys and the Aa. Moreover, the CFR benefits to the modernization policy initiated several years ago by VNF. The consequences of the global change on the navigation activities and the water resource will be identified according to achieved studies and research projects on the global change.

An accurate model of the CFR dynamics and its interactions with the catchment areas are required to study its resilience. The resilience of a navigation reach is defined as its ability to resist to exceptional events and conditions. To relax the assumptions which are necessary for the use of usual modeling methods, a black-box modeling approach will be proposed. This model will be used to study the critical events due to the global change according to the definition of realistic scenarios. In parallel, management strategies will be designed and tested by considering these exceptional events with the aim to improve the CFR resilience. The proposed strategies will be grouped in a reactive control architecture. This architecture might be implemented at the level of operational management of navigation networks as a decision-aid tool. Economic benefits and service for VNF, and socio-economic benefits for local authorities will be expected at the end of this project.